Not Your Typical Cinderella

When Rose was only 7, her mom passed away. Her dad got remarried to Cheryl three years later. Rose feels it in her heart that Cheryl only loves her dad for his money. She treats her stepdaughter Rose terribly and favors her own daughter, Julia much more. When something tragic happens to her dad on her 17th birthday, Rose is desperate to prove, along with her friends Shannon, Ava, and Griffen, that it was all Cheryl's fault. Little does she know that along the way, she will meet new people, fall in love, and get her heart broken.

13. Because I Like You

GRIFFEN’S POV

We were almost done planning Rose’s birthday party…it was going to be amazing! We sent Harry to keep Rose busy so that she had no way to find out what was going on.

HARRY’S POV

When Rose got in the car, all I could think about was everything I couldn’t have. I just wanted her to be able to be with me so bad, but I knew it was out of her control and there was nothing that either of us could do about it. I was up all night thinking about how hard her life was and wishing I could always be there for her.

“Where are we going?” Was the first thing she said. No hello, no how are you, oblivious of how much pain I was going through…not being able to have her.

“I need to run some errands for the boys,” I answered, reaching forward to turn on the radio. She put her hand over my hand and pulled it away.

“No, I like it quiet. I mean, I want to talk,” she said as she pulled a pair of sunglasses out of the leather bag that was around her shoulder. She put them over her eyes, and I wanted to compliment her on how hot she looked in them, but I knew that would be inappropriate. We were just friends, right?

“Okay,” I wasn’t sure what there was to talk about.

‘We’re just friends, okay? Even though I know we have feelings for each other…we’re just friends,” her phone beeped and she quickly texted something to someone.

“Fine,” I gripped the steering wheel tightly and turned into the parking lot of a grocery store.

We got out of the car and we walked inside. For some reason, Rose was in a really crappy mood. It was going to be a looong day.

LIAM’S POV

Shannon and I were assigned to get the party supplies. We went to this party store that was about 15 minutes away from the flat. Luckily, it was also next door to a Starbucks, and I hadn’t had my daily coffee yet.

As we browsed the aisles, I took it as an opportunity to learn more about her.

“Shannon,” I started, and she turned to me, “what would you be doing this summer if you hadn’t gone to that party and met us?” She smiled at me. “I don’t know, really. Probably just going to work every day, sneaking Rose out and going to a party every night. That’s really all we did last summer.”

Now we were in the back of the store, looking at a wall of different colored party favors.

“Well, I’m glad I met you, Shannon,” I decided to take a risk and started to wrap my arms around her waist.

“Me too!” She leaned forward and kissed me, in the back aisle of a party store. When she pulled away, she was laughing. Everything we did always ended in laughter, and that’s why I liked her so much. Soon, we were both dying of laughter, for no apparent reason at all. I truly didn’t want to spend time with any other person in the world.

ROSE’S POV

Of course I was pissed off! I really liked Harry, was spending the day with him, but was forced to treat him like he was “just a friend.” It sucked. At to make it worse, he wouldn’t stop staring at me!

Our next stop was Subway, because Harry kept complaining that he was hungry. When we got up to the counter, Harry asked me what I wanted.

“Nothing,” I crossed my arms. I was hungry but I didn’t feel like eating.

“Seriously, what do you want? It’s on me,” he offered.

“Nothing.”

“Fine,” he turned around and ordered his sandwich with everything on it. After, he ordered a turkey sandwich with white bread and smiled at me.

“I told you I wasn’t hungry!” I punched his arm, and he started to laugh.

“I knew you were. Besides, everyone likes turkey!” He handed me my sandwich and we found a table in the corner of the restaurant.

GRIFFEN’S POV

“So what do we have to do?” I said, pulling out my phone, sitting in the passenger’s seat of Zayn’s car.

“We need to get snacks,” he answered, and his phone rang. He handed it to me and motioned for me to put it on speaker.

“Zayn?” I heard Liam’s voice.

“What?”

“We got streamers and balloons and stuff. Is that all we need?” Liam asked.

“Dude, I have no idea. Call Ava,” Zayn shook his head.

After he said that, there were a bunch of shuffling noises and I could hear Shannon laughing. There was the beeping noise and the call was lost. Zayn just gave me the “I don’t know” look.

When we got to the grocery store, we tried to pick out all of Rose’s favorite foods. We got tons of chips, tons of soda, and different kinds of candy. It took much longer than it should have, because of all the joking around that happened.

At the checkout, I started to push the cart into a line ran by a pretty brunette girl. Zayn immediately took the cart and tried to bring it to a different cashier.

“Zayn, this line is shorter!” I argued, trying to pull the cart back. He started to blush and looked panicked.

“Yeah, but…I see- something I, like, need over here,” he took the cart and went to a different check out. That was weird.

ZAYN’S POV

Griffen and I almost ran into a girl that I met at a club last week. I never called her back because I met Griffen a couple days later. To be honest, I didn’t even remember her name but I recognized her face. I just didn’t want her to see Griffen, and I had no interest in her since I met Griffen.

AVA’S POV

Of course Niall and I were left with the sucky job. Staying home, cleaning, and sending out the mass text to all of the guests. Behind the couch, I found a whole pile of popcorn! These boys were such slobs.

“Niall! Come clean this up! I don’t want to touch it!” I yelled at him. It wasn’t my mess.

He ran in with a huge grin on his face. He thought that absolutely everything was hilarious.

“Sassy Ava, I like it!” He looked at the popcorn and bent down to grab a piece, swiftly sticking it in his mouth. I gave him a look to let him know I thought he was disgusting.

“If you think I’m gonna kiss that mouth, you’re wrong,” I laughed and he made a pouty face.

HARRY’S POV

After all of the errands were done, Rose insisted on going home. She said that her arm hurt and she just wanted to lay down. I didn’t argue with her, maybe her arm really did hurt, and she didn’t get that cast off for another week and a half. She told me it was okay to pull into her driveway today, so I did.

“Rose, is everything okay?” I couldn’t let her feel sad. I just wanted to talk to her and try to help her.

“Really Harry, it isn’t. It obviously isn’t,” she took her sunglasses off her eyes and started to get out of the car.

“You know that you can talk to me any time?”

“I know,” she answered, now all the way out of the car.

“So why don’t you?”

“Because I like you,” she said, shutting the door and starting to walk inside. She was gone, but her words stayed with me. “Because I like you.” Does that mean that she doesn’t talk to me because she’s afraid of liking me more, when she can’t? It was so hard to read her.